Since men mark all our steps, and watch our haltings, let a sense of their insidious vigilance excite us so to behave ourselves that they may find a conviction of the mighty power of Christianity towards regulating the passions.

As rivers, when they overflow, drown those grounds, and ruin those husbandmen, which, whilst they flowed calmly betwixt their banks, they fertilized and enriched; so our passions, when they grow exorbitant and unruly, destroy those virtues to which they may be very serviceable whilst they keep within their bounds.

Reason is never inconvenient, but when it comes to be applied. Mere general truths interfere very little with the passions. They can, until they are roused by a troublesome application, rest in great tranquillity, side by side with tempers and proceedings the most directly opposite to them. Men want to be reminded, who do not want to be taught; because those original ideas of rectitude, to which the mind is compelled to assent when they are proposed, are not always as present to us as they ought to be.

Strong passion under the direction of a feeble reason feeds a low fever, which serves only to destroy the body that entertains it. But vehement passion does not always indicate an infirm judgment. It often accompanies, and actuates, and is even auxiliary to, a powerful understanding; and when they both conspire and act harmoniously, their force is great to destroy disorder within and to repel injury from abroad.

The importance and necessity of a ruling passioni.e. some grand object, the view of which kindles all the ardour the soul is capable of, to attain or accomplish it. Possibility of creating a ruling passion asserted.

Disappointed love makes the misery of youth; disappointed ambition that of manhood; and successful avarice that of age. These three attack us through life; and it is our duty to stand upon our guard. To love we ought to oppose dissipation, and endeavour to change the object of the affections; to ambition, the happiness of indolence and obscurity; and to avarice, the fear of soon dying. These are the shields with which we should arm ourselves; and thus make every scene of life, if not pleasing, at least supportable.

The cool calculation of interest operates only at times: we are habitually borne forward in all parts of our career by specific affections and passions; some more simple and original, others complicated and acquired. In men of a vulgar cast, the grosser appetites,in minds more elevated, the passions of sympathy, taste, ambition, the pleasures of imagination,are the springs of motion. The world triumphs over its votaries by approaching them on the side of their passions; and it does not so much deceive their reason as captivate their heart.

If the passions of the mind be strong, they easily sophisticate the understanding; they make it apt to believe upon every slender warrant, and to imagine infallible truth when scarce any probable show appeareth.

The nature of the human mind can not be sufficiently understood without considering the affections and passions, or those modifications or actions of the mind consequent upon the apprehensions of certain objects or events in which the mind generally conceives good or evil.

During the commotion of the blood and spirits, in which passion consists, whatsoever is offered to the imagination in favour of it tends only to deceive the reason: it is indeed a real trepan upon it, feeding it with colours and appearances instead of arguments.

Take any passion of the soul of man while it is predominant and afloat; and, just in the critical height of it, nick it with some lucky or unlucky word; and you may as certainly overrule it to your own purpose, as a spark of fire falling upon gunpowder will infallibly blow it up.

Thus the vain man takes praise for honour; the proud man, ceremony for respect; the ambitious man, power for glory. These three characters are indeed of very near resemblance, but differently received by mankind. Vanity makes men ridiculous; pride, odious; and ambition, terrible. The foundation of all which is, that they are grounded upon falsehood: for if men, instead of studying to appear considerable, were in their own hearts possessors of the requisites for esteem, the acceptance they otherwise unfortunately aim at would be as inseparable from them, as approbation is from truth itself.

It may serve for a great lesson of humiliation to mankind to behold the habits and passions of men trampling over interest, friendship, honour, and their own personal safety, as well as that of their country.

The word passion signifies the receiving any action, in a large philosophical sense; in a more limited philosophical sense, it signifies any of the affections of human nature; as love, fear, joy, sorrow: but the common people confine it only to anger.